The Space Queen
by ConMan1226
Summary: What if, instead of hallucinating about Matt, Ryan Stone came across Wheatley and the Space Sphere? Oneshot. Probably.


**A/N: I was inspired to write this fic after watching 'Portal - Going Home' I'm glad that you liked my first one shot. Don't worry, they won't all be one shots, and they won't all be Portal related. But I don't want to start on a full story until I have the time. So this is just something to hold you over.**

**Neither Portal nor Gravity belongs to me.**

"For the millionth bloody time, I get it! We're in space!"

Wheatley didn't know why he was still bothering with the Space Sphere. It was the equivalent to talking to a wall. A wall who never shut up. Wheatley had lost count of exactly how long they had been up here for, but he somehow felt that knowing would somehow make him feel even more miserable. To be honest, he didn't know which was worse, the Space Sphere or the fact that he would never be able to apologize to Chell.

"Space! Space! So many planets! No. Never mind. Don't see any planets. But stars! Lots of stars! I like stars! I spy with my little eye something… shiny! Guess! Guess!"

Right now he was leaning towards the former. "I guess stars?"

"Right! Right! You're good! Now I spy with my little eye something… silver!"

Silver? There wasn't anything silver in space. Unless..

Then he saw it. Could it be? Could it truly be? It was! It was a space station! A genuine space station, and it looked like there was somebody inside it!

Wheatley knew he had to get to it, The trouble was, being limbless meant there wasn't much he could do except flailing madly and hoping in vain to reach the shuttle. By some miracle, either he was getting closer to the shuttle, or the shuttle was getting closer to him. He tried to get a good look of the person inside it, and…

Wait, that couldn't be right.

He blinked a few times and then looked again. He thought he saw Chell in the shuttle, but it was someone else. It was a woman who did look a bit like Chell from a distance, but now he could see that this woman had different hair and a different facial structure.

And she was looking right at them.

Wheatley tried to get a reading on her face, but she turned away quickly. Closer examination revealed that she was putting on her spacesuit. And that could only mean one thing. She was going out to get him! Wheatley smiled. "This is it," he said. "I'm going to go home. I just know it."

"Space?"

"Not space, home!" The woman opened the door, coming out in her full spacesuit. She floated over to where the two cores were, a look of fear and confusion on her face. She wasn't speaking.

"Oh, I hope this isn't another mute," Wheatley said. "Uh, not that I would mind. I have nothing against mutes. I'm just saying, it would be nice."

The Space Sphere started talking. "Hey lady! Who are you? Who are you? Are you the Queen of Space?"

Wheatley rolled his eye. "Yes, she's the Queen of Space, and the Queen of Space doesn't like your voice very much, so shut up."

"I must obey the Queen of Space."

Wheatley realized that this woman couldn't make out what they were saying because of her helmet, but she seemed to be interested in them, because she grabbed both of the cores and moved back to the shuttle.

The shuttle seemed relatively simple, filled with basic necessities. He knew that the shuttle wasn't made at Aperture considering that there weren't any death traps.

The door closed, and the woman removed her helmet, and started breathing heavily. It was clear from her rather loud hyperventilating that she did have a voice. Wheatley cleared his throat (hypothetically speaking, of course.) and started talking to her.

"Can I just say, first of all, thank you so much for grabbing us. Honestly, I owe you one."

The woman looked frightened. Finally, she managed, "You… you can talk?"

"Um, yes. Last time I checked." He chuckled. "My name's Wheatley, by the way. What's yours?"

"Uhh… Ryan Stone…" she noticed a familiar logo on the cores. "Aperture Laboratories? You're from Aperture?"

"Yeah. It's a pretty nice place. Well, not really. But it's better than Black Mesa, at least I assume it is. I've never actually been there."

"I've heard about Aperture. You must be one of those 'personality spheres' they bragged about." She stared at him for a moment, and a smile appeared on her face. After a moment or two, she asked, "How did you end up here?"

"Uh, that is a very long story, believe you me. Plenty of time for that once we go home."

Ryan's smile vanished. "What?"

"Well, we are going home, aren't we? Or are we just going to stay up here?"

Ryan opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it. She looked away and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Finally, she said, "What's so great about home anyway?"

"Well, uh, lots of things. Oxygen. Gravity. Food. Water. Friends. Family."

Ryan didn't look at him. "Listen to me," she said. "I'm not a very social person. I don't have a lot of friends. I was married, but I got divorced. I had a daughter. Prettiest little girl you can imagine." She stopped. She stood there in silence. "And then one day, she just died. Simple as that. I never really connected with anybody after that. What I'm getting at is, there's nobody down there looking up at me. Is anybody looking up at you?"

The two of them sat there in dead silence. Wheatley didn't know what to say. He felt awful for Ryan, but he was also thinking about what he said. Was Chell looking up? Did Chell miss him? Probably not. Why would she? After all, he tried to kill her on numerous occasions.

"No.." he said softly. "No, I suppose there isn't."

"I'm sorry." Both of them turned. The voice came from the Space Sphere. It was the first time Ryan heard it talk and the first time Wheatley heard it say something not space related.

Wheatley thought for a minute. Chell. Even if she didn't accept his apology, he wanted there to be an apology. He felt like he had unfinished business down at earth. "Well, wait a minute," he said, "could we go home if you wanted to…"

"I tried," Ryan said with a sigh., "It's pretty risky, but… there is a Russian space station nearby… I guess I could use the launching pads…" she shook her head. "But what's the purpose?"

"You know, maybe there is a purpose and you just haven't found it yet. Maybe you could go down and meet the man of your dreams. Or maybe you could win the lottery. Or maybe some other glorious thing that humans do. I dunno. But I can tell you this, you're not gonna get to do any of that up here."

Ryan sighed. She didn't say anything for the longest time. Finally, she said, "Maybe you're right, Wheatley. Maybe It's time to start living again."

Wheatley didn't know exactly what she meant, but he nodded. The Space Sphere started laughing and said, "You go, Space Queen!"

"Space Queen?" Ryan asked, giving Wheatley a quizzical look.

"It's a long story." Wheatley said.

Ryan smiled and said, "Plenty of time for that once we go home."

And the three of them agreed.

**A/N: It's possible that I might continue this story in the future, but I highly doubt it. For now, just consider it a one-shot, and I'll leave it up to your imagination what happens from here on out. I hope you enjoyed it!**


End file.
